2020 was a year like no other. No doubt about it.

Nevertheless, there were also inspiring news and events, which triggered our curiosity and helped us forget some of societal challenges. One of them was the birth of AIMC, or the “AI Music Creativity Conference“.

The conference was organized to combine two previously existing, and somewhat overlapping events: The Computer Simulation of Music Creativity conference (est. 2016), and The International Workshop on Musical Metacreation (est. 2012).

The event was organized by the Division of Speech, Music and Hearing in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (KTH), and Bob L. T. Sturm was the Conference Chair. Given the Covid-19 situation, which the world faced in 2020, the event was fully held online.


What Was Discussed?

Given the online nature of the conference, all presentations were broadcasted in real-time on the conference’s YouTube channel. The programme covered a broad spectrum of topics, such as interactive learning, hierarchical structures in pop music, perceptual spaces in singing, calculations of tonal tensions and much more.

Personally, I would recommend watching the following:

  1. Ed Newton-Red (Tok Tok)
  2. CJ Carr (Databots)
  3. Panel on the Future of Artificial Musician

You can also find all presentations and panels on the playlist below:


AIMC 2021

2021 will host the second edition of the AIMC (AI Music Creativity Conference). The event will take place at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) of the University of Music and Performing Arts of Graz, Austria and will also be fully broadcasted online.

The conference chairs will be Artemi-Maria Gioti and Gerhard Eckel.

Here is a description available on the conferences’ website, regarding next year’s theme:

“The theme of this year’s conference is: Performing [with] machines. The dual meaning of this title hints towards an understanding of the machine as a performing agent in a human-machine partnership. By putting the emphasis on creative human-machine partnerships in performative contexts, this theme aims to encourage artistic and scientific contributions that deal with the different ways in which musicianship, authorship and performership are challenged, extended and redefined in the era of AI. 

In line with this theme, we invite contributions that address the implications of AI for existing and emerging artistic practices. In particular, we encourage submissions that address, but are in no way limited to, the following questions: In what ways can machine intelligence enrich existing artistic practices and lead to the development of new ones? What are the implications of machine autonomy for authorship and performership? What are the challenges and limitations relating to the delegation of creative responsibility to machines? What types of relationships are possible between human and computational creativity? And, in what ways do historical and socio-cultural aspects of music inform the development of Music AI applications and vice versa?”.

Sounds very exciting, right? Well, in case you like to attend in person, publish a paper or attend virtually, here are some important dates:

  • Submission deadline: 1. April 2021
  • Acceptance notification deadline: 1. May 2021
  • Camera-ready deadline: 1. June 2021
  • Conference: 18.-22. July 2021

In case you like to contact the organizers, the official email is:aimc2021@iem.at.